Jamie Lynn Spears notwithstanding, teen pregnancy is not usually the stuff of national headlines - but you'd never know it from the widespread media attention given to an alleged "pregnancy pact" involving girls in Gloucester, Mass.

It seems 17 girls from the city's high school - none older than 16 - have become pregnant this year, a number four times the school's average. According to Time Magazine, which first broke the story, about half had conspired to get pregnant at the same time so that they could all raise their babies together, one girl going so far as to seek out a "24-year-old homeless man" to do so.

The story was picked up by news outlets and bloggers across North America, and the public reaction was as swift as the judgement was harsh - a righteous furor perhaps best exemplified by a headline on ABC's website: "Pregnant Teens: Who's to Blame?"

In this situation, there was lots to go around. The media was blamed for glorifying pregnancy - although hardly anything was said about the societal expectation of motherhood that continues to be foisted upon women - and the girls' parents were blamed for having no control over their children. Time, meanwhile, insinuated the school might be to blame, reasoning that by providing on-site day care, it's become too supportive of teenage moms.

The bulk of the vitriol, however, was directed at the girls themselves, mostly from anonymous online commentators who called them, among other things, stupid, immature, selfish, tragic, spoiled brats, bimbos, sluts, and ignorant hos.

Public consensus seemed to be that having a baby as a teenager was the worst possible thing that could ever happen, and many folks simply could not understand why a 15-year-old would intentionally get pregnant, unless (as many hypothesized in a spectacular display of classism) her life's aspiration was to be a "welfare mom" and freeload off of hard-working taxpayers.

The polarization of the issue was particularly fascinating: The girls were demonized for their terrible lack of judgement while at the same time, dismissed as misguided children who couldn't possibly know what they were doing - a lose-lose dichotomy that relegated them into being a bunch of evil whores intent on bilking the system, or a bunch of stupid victims tricked by Juno into believing that pregnancy is, like, totally cool.

Obviously, the truth lies somewhere in between. These teenagers may have neglected to consider the consequences of their actions (what a shocker!) but that's not to say they or their babies are now doomed to a life of misery.

Gloucester's mayor has since denied the existence of a pregnancy pact, insisting that Time was misled by the unsubstantiated speculations of the school's principal. But in a way, it doesn't really matter if those 17 girls got pregnant by accident or design.

What's done is done, and whether or not we approve of their actions (or of teen pregnancy in general), these 17 girls - and others like them - will always be better served by understanding and support than by blame and stigmatization.